“We can make a commitment to promote vegetables and fruits and whole grains on every part of every menu. We can make portion sizes smaller and emphasize quality over quantity. And we can help create a culture – imagine this – where our kids ask for healthy options instead of resisting them. ”

Michelle Obama

I may not be a fan of President Obama but the First Lady does makes so much sense in this statement.  If you want to learn how to decrease disease/illness now and for our future generations for both men and women with reviewing the top 6 diseases for men in America go to striveforgoodhealth.com and review our topic today.

More males than females are born in America each year.  Still regarding health to both genders through research and just living the experience of being an RN over a quarter of a century in numerous fields (primarily of adults to geriatrics) it shows women are more healthier than men (even starting from infancy).

Out of the 15 leading causes of death, men lead women in all of them except Alzheimer’s disease, which many men don’t live long enough to develop in many cases.  Although the gender gap is closing, men still die five years earlier than their wives, on average.  Through WebMD experts have told them the reason for this is that they are partly biological, and men’s approach to their health plays a role too, of course.  “Men put their health last,” says Demetrius Porche, DNS, RN, editor in chief of the Americ.an Journal of Men’s Health. “Most men’s thinking is, if they can live up to their roles in society, then they’re healthy.”  Not always the case especially when age keeps creeping up on a male with his priorities of life changing with new love or even peeps that come on board in a man’s lifetime.  In most cases living healthy normally happens when are age is younger but then due to work to families to expectations leaves little room for healthier habits in the week but even 30 minutes a day could make a tremendous change to all systems of the human body preventing certain diseases/illnesses, especially those due to poor diet, eating habits and overall health habits (Ex. as simple as getting 8 hours for sleep a day).  Men go to the doctor less than women and are more likely to have a serious condition when they do go, research shows. “As long as they’re working and feeling productive, most men aren’t considering the risks to their health,” says Porche.  Like a lot of men say “I don’t have to time to think about it.”.    But even if you’re feeling healthy, a little planning can help you stay that way.  One is through preventions measures before secondary have to start, meaning ending line your now with a disease or illness, that may have been prevented completely if you lived a healthier life.  One way of preventing disease and illness is good eating or diet, with balancing out the 4 food groups (to get all nutrients from minerals to vitamins to enzymes to proteins and more).  The top threats to men’s health aren’t secrets: they are commonly known and often preventable.  WebMD consulted the experts that came up with for you this list of the top health threats to men, and how to avoid them.

—Heart disease and stroke are the first and second leading causes of death worldwide, in both men and women,” says Darwin Labarthe, MD, MPH, PhD, director of the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention at the CDC. “It’s a huge global public health problem, and in the U.S. we have some of the highest rates.”  In cardiovascular disease, cholesterol plaques gradually block the arteries in the heart and brain. If a plaque becomes unstable, a blood clot forms, blocking the artery and causing a heart attack or stroke.

One in five men and women will die from cardiovascular disease, according to Labarthe.   For unclear reasons, though, men’s arteries develop atherosclerosis earlier than women’s. “Men’s average age for death from cardiovascular disease is under 65,” he says; women catch up about six years later.

Even in adolescence, girls’ arteries look healthier than boys’. Experts believe women’s naturally higher levels of good cholesterol (HDL) are partly responsible. Men have to work harder to reduce their risk for heart disease and stroke.  How do you go about this?  Take a guess.  Yes, again through your diet, eating, the 4 food groups in your diet, activity or exercise (at least 30 minutes a day or 1 hour every other day) and practicing daily good health habits.

—Lung cancer is a terrible disease: ugly, aggressive, and almost always metastatic (spreads somewhere in the body). Lung cancer spreads early, usually before it grows large enough to cause symptoms or even show up on an X-ray. By the time it’s found, lung cancer is often advanced and difficult to cure. Less than half of men are alive a year later.  So … are you still SMOKING?

Tobacco smoke causes 90% of all lung cancers. Thanks to falling smoking rates in the U.S., fewer men than ever are dying of lung cancer. But lung cancer is still the leading cancer killer in men:  Again due to many still practicing poor habits which could have prevented many of the lung cancer cases.  Anyone who QUITS smoking at any age reduces the risk for lung cancer.  Few preventive measures are as effective as stopping smoking and nothing is as challenging, like any addiction (whether mental or physical)

–Prostate Cancer: A Leading Cancer for Men

This is one health problem men can lay full claim to — after all, women don’t have prostates. A walnut-sized gland behind the penis that secretes fluids important for ejaculation, the prostate is prone to problems as men age.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men other than skin canceHYPERLINK “http://www.webmd.com/melanoma-skin-cancer/default.htm”r. Close to 200,000 men will develop prostate cancer this year in the U.S.

But while one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime, only one in 35 will die from it. “Many prostate cancers are slow-growing and unlikely to spread, while others are aggressive,” says Djenaba Joseph, MD, medical officer for cancer prevention at the CDC. “The problem is, we don’t have effective tests for identifying which cancers are more dangerous.”

Screening for prostate cancer requires a digital rectal exam (the infamous gloved finger) and a blood test for prostate specific antigen (PSA).

But in fact, “Screening has never definitively been shown to reduce the chances of dying from prostate cancer,” according to Joseph. That’s because screening finds many cancers that would never be fatal, even if undetected. Testing then leads to aggressive treatment of relatively harmless cancers, which causes problems like impotence and incontinence.

Should you get screened for prostate cancer? Some experts say yes, but “the best solution is to see your doctor regularly and talk about your overall risk,” says Joseph. “All men should understand the risks and benefits of each approach, whichever you choose.”

–Depression and Suicide: Men Are at Risk                                                          Depression isn’t just a bad mood, a rough patch, or the blues. It’s an emotional disturbance that affects your whole body and overall health.

In effect, depression proves the mind-body connection. Brain chemicals and stress hormones are out of balance. Sleep, appetite, and energy level are disturbed. Research even suggests men with depression are more likely to develop heart disease.

The results can be tragic. Women attempt suicide more often, but men are more successful at completing it. Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death among all men; for young men it’s higher.

–Diabetes: The Silent Health Threat for Men

Diabetes usually begins silently, without symptoms. Over years, blood sugar levels creep higher, eventually spilling into the urine. The resulting frequent urination and thirst are what finally bring many men to the doctor.

The high sugar of diabetes is anything but sweet. Excess glucose acts like a slow poison on blood vessels and nerves everywhere in the body. Heart attacks, strokes, blindness, kidney failure, and amputations are the fallout for thousands of men.

Boys born in 2000 have an alarming one-in-three chance of developing diabetes in their lifetimes.

Overweight and obesity are likely feeding the diabetes epidemic. “The combination of diabetes and obesity may be erasing some of the reductions in heart disease risk we’ve had over the last few decades,” warns Labarthe.

Exercise, combined with a healthy diet, can prevent type 2 diabetes. Moderate weight loss — for those who are overweight — and 30 minutes a day of physical activity reduced the chance of diabetes by more than 50% in men at high risk in one major study.

—Erectile Dysfunction: A Common Health Problem in Men *Erectile dysfunction may not be life threatening, but it’s still signals an important health problem. Two-thirds of men older than 70 and up to 39% of 40-year-old men have problems with erectile dysfunction. Men with ED report less enjoyment in life and are more likely to be depressed.

Erectile dysfunction is most often caused by atherosclerosis — the same process that causes heart attacks and strokes. In fact, having ED frequently means that blood vessels throughout the body are in less-than-perfect health. Doctors consider erectile dysfunction an early warning sign for cardiovascular disease.

You’ve probably heard more about the numerous effective treatments for ED than you ever cared to just by watching the evening news. Treatments make a fulfilling sex life possible despite ED, but they don’t cure the condition. If you have erectile dysfunction, see your doctor, and ask if more than your sex life is at risk.

So what’s the key to decreasing these diseases or illnesses in men live a healthier life so men in America can decrease the chances of developing these diseases or if with one of these diagnoses already it will surely help decrease the impact of the disease or illness compared to living an unhealthy life.   So if you need guidance I have direction,  I surely did for my habits and diet.

Various lifestyle factors have been associated with increasing the risk of stroke. These include lack of exercise, alcohol, diet, obesity, smoking, drug use, and stress. Guidelines endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health recommend that Americans should exercise for at least 30 minutes of moderately intense physical activity on most, and preferably all, days of the week.  Recent epidemiologic studies have shown a U-shaped curve for alcohol consumption and coronary heart disease mortality, with low-to-moderate alcohol consumption associated with lower overall mortality. High daily dietary intake of fat is associated with obesity and may act as an independent risk factor or may affect other stroke risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and cardiac disease. Homocysteine is another important dietary component associated with stroke risk, while other dietary stroke risk factors are thought to be mediated through the daily intake of several vitamins and antioxidants. Smoking, especially current smoking, is a crucial and extremely modifiable independent determinant of stroke. Despite the obstacles to the modification of lifestyle factors, health professionals should be encouraged to continue to identify such factors and help improve our ability to prevent stroke, decrease cancers caused by smoking, decrease coronary artery disease which decreases your chance with Obesity, ED, stroke,  & hypertension and more.   Learn healthy habits or healthier habits, broaden your knowledge on the 4 food groups in what is lean or leaner or leanest with each group, increase your activity 30 minutes a day and learn what a healthy diet actually is through Dr. Wayne Scott Anderson’s book “Dr. A’s habits of health” and even if you need to lose weight we can show you the way to do it healthy.  It’s not a diet for 3 months or even 6 to a year but it is learning how to get to your body mass index in the ideal weight range for your height and you decide how low you want to go.  We can show you through the book and those having more difficulty can buy our foods for 6 months or even a year or in my case I started almost a year ago and I use both their healthy foods as well as healthy foods from the store.  You decide the choices, no one else.  If you are interested go to my website healthyusa.tsfl.com and peek at what we offer for no prescription, no charge, no donation and no hacking.  If you like what you see join me and so many others trying to get America healthier and in time decrease our population in diseases or illnesses primarily impacted by health habits, diet, and weight.  Wouldn’t you and the future want to get better in mind and body to impact our health care system that includes our insurance and most importantly lives of citizens in the USA in how they live (which would be more active).  It is your choice and I hope you decide to come aboard to my website healthyusa.tsfl.com and I know if I could do it so can too.  It just takes discipline and the drive to want to stay healthy or get in a better state of heath.  Hope I have helped someone out there in broadening your knowledge regarding how to keep or reach a healthier life.

“There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.”

P. J. O’Rourke (American political satirist and author)

Heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes continue to be leading causes of death among older adults, based on the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (saving lives and protecting people…CDC).  They also provide the following: *                                                                Baby Boomers for the next 25 years equating to over 70 million people can live longer lives with them combining to double the population of older Americans in the next quarter of a century.  Baby Boomers can take steps to live long and healthy lives as opposed to a lot of their parents who died much younger.   Living healthier will play a positive impact on the health care system.  Starting a step towards prevention or treatment (Rx) of a present disease that you can improve is a mission we Americans owe to ourselves, our young ones, and to our nation’s future.

Through healthy dieting and behaviors (Ex. activity, nutrition, staying in your therapeutic body mass index, controlling stress both physically and mentally, oral health and dealing with any disability reaching the optimal health level you can reach) you can reach a healthier way to living.  If the majority of our nation lives healthier, shows progress in promoting prevention, improving the health and well-being of older adults with reducing behaviors that contribute to premature death and disability will increase a healthier population in the U.S.

Baby boomers should do the following with diet and exercise:

Get Screened

Get screened including flu vaccine, pneumonia vaccine, colorectal cancer screening, and mammography for women.

Mammography is the best available method to detect breast cancer in its earliest, most treatable stage before it is big enough to feel or cause symptoms. Women aged 50 and over should get mammograms every two years.

Colorectal cancer screening tests can find precancerous polyps so that they can be removed before they turn into cancer. They can also detect colorectal cancer early, when treatment works best. Older adults should be screened for colorectal cancer by having a fecal occult blood test during the past year or a colonoscopy within 10 years.

Get Vaccinated

Flu and pneumonia is the seventh leading cause of death among adults 65 years or older, despite the availability of effective vaccines. Older adults should get the flu vaccine every year and get the pneumonia vaccine at least once.

Be Physically Active

Regular physical activity is one of the most important things older adults can do for their health. Physical activity can prevent many of the health problems that may come with age, including the risk of falls.

How Much Activity Do Older Adults Need?

2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (i.e., brisk walking) every week and muscle-strengthening activities for 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups.

OR

1 hour and 15 minutes (75 minutes) of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity (i.e., jogging or running) every week and muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups.

OR

An equivalent mix of moderate and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity and muscle strengthening activities on 2 or more days a week that work all major muscle groups.

Eat Fruits and Vegetables Daily

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of some cancers and chronic diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Quit Smoking

Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of disease, disability, and death in the United States. For help visit www.smokefree.gov.

Take Medication for High Blood Pressure and Diabetes

High blood pressure & Diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, it’s one of the leading causes of illness and death among older adults. More than ½ of Americans don’t have their blood pressure under control.  Complianceis so essential in treating HTN, Diabetes or any disease including what your M.D. feels you need as a medication, if needed.  The only way to find out is by seeing your health care providers, such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, who can track their patient’s blood pressure, prescribe once-a-day medications, and give clear instructions on how to take blood pressure & diabetic medications.

Patients should take the initiative or responsibility to monitor their blood pressure and sugar levels (finger sticks) between medical visits and know what abnormal values to report to their MD.  Including taking their medications as prescribed, tell their doctor about any side effects, and make lifestyle changes, such as eating a low-sodium/low-calorie diet, exercising, and stopping smoking.

Do you want a better body, or a healthier society making our country America better overall?, than go no further and click onto healthy usa.tsfl.com. that will give you the direction to reaching both a better body and society if enough do it.   Healthyusa.tsfl.com provides you with information that you get to decide in choosing whether or not to use.  We provide through Dr. Anderson and his book “Dr. A’s healthy habits” and even provided your own private health coach me (an RN 25 years plus).  This is no donation site, no hacking website, just a site providing information on how to live a healthier life.  I hope you make the move in living healthier and the first step is learning how through a good resource and healthyusa.tsfl.com is one way to helping you reach that goal.  I hope I here from you very soon.

It is still the number one killer even greater than cancer in both men and women today.  This disease should be rare do to a lot of cardiac disease is inflicted upon humans through being overweight through just bad healthy habits practiced.  Obesity can cause diabetes II, heart disease, high blood pressure, and more.  High blood pressure is called the “silent killer” because it often has no warning signs or symptoms, and many people don’t realize they have it. That’s why it’s important to get your blood pressure checked regularly.  The good news is that you can take steps to

prevent high blood pressure, or to treat it if it is already high.

What we can do is make some changes in our living.  We westerners create an increase in diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.  AMERICA WE NEED TO WAKE UP AND MAKE A CHANGE.  TO THE MAIN CULPRITES we are talking about sugars and fat (OUR DIET).  GLUCOSE and LIPIDS!.  The typical American diet is consisted and loaded with sugar and fats.  Lack of exercise and stress doesn’t help the situation.  Get peace of mind through again making changes in your life if you are striving to become healthier.  Let’s look at cholesterol = 2 types HDL and LDL.  LDL is the bad cholesterol.  Know if your LDL is type A or type B.  If you have a high HDL level and a low LDL that is good but ask your doctor to see if you can get a blood test checking both type A and type B of your cholesterol that will give you the knowledge if you need to take an action.  Go to CDC.org to see the different number ranges of both men and women on their levels and more.  Just knowing your cholesterol level isn’t enough but does give the doctor some direction.  Knowing if your type A or type B LDL helps even more with knowing your risk of heart disease.

Cholesterol only becomes a problem if the LDL gets too high with high pattern type B which is worse with stress and smoking and processed foods in high amounts eaten. Particles called lipoproteins carry cholesterol in the blood. There are two kinds of lipoproteins you need to know about: LDL and HDL. The plasma lipoprotein particles classified under

high-density (HDL) and low-density (LDL) lipoproteins enable fats to be carried in the blood stream. 

-Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol

make up the majority of the body’s cholesterol. LDL is known as “bad” cholesterol because having high levels can lead to a buildup in the arteries and result in heart disease.

-High-density lipoproteins (HDL) cholesterol

absorb cholesterol and carry it back to the liver, which flushes it from the body. High levels of HDL, or “good” cholesterol, reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1) is the major protein of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and apoB is among the major proteins of very low-, low- (LDL), and intermediate-density lipoproteins. Because of their associations with the respective lipoproteins, apoA1 is inversely and apoB is positively associated with cardiovascular risk (2). In fact, evidence suggests that apoA1 and apoB are better predictors of heart disease risk than are HDL and LDL cholesterol levels (3-5). Apolipoproteins may also offer advantages over lipoprotein cholesterol measurements because they are direct measurements, whereas LDL, for example, is calculated from other lipoproteins from a fasting blood sample.

You can take several steps to maintain a normal cholesterol level.

Get a blood test.

Eat a healthy diet.

Maintain a healthy weight.

Exercise regularly.

Don’t smoke.

Treat high cholesterol.

Heart disease what is it?  Your arteries can get stretched in high blood pressure and it puts the arteries at risk for an auto immune response which allows LDL particles to go in these stretched out areas causing build up of bad cholesterol in the arteries and imbeds fat causing the placque build up = narrowing of the arteries.

We need to reduce inflammation in the arteries.  To prevent, reduce, and treat heart disease if already diagnosed with.  Reduce all sugars, cut back on fatty foods, exercise daily, increase of your whole grains, fresh fruits, and vegetables.   We need to use all 4 food groups but eat the healthy ones in the right portions.  Which I can provide to you later how to go about this.

In the United States, the most common type of heart disease is coronary artery disease (CAD), which leads many to heart attacks. You can greatly reduce your risk for CAD through lifestyle changes and, in some cases, medication. CAD consists of cholesterol and placque build up, even tar if a smoker,  that can be deadly in time with blocking the arteries called atherosclerosis.  This in time left untreated can lead to a heart attack or even silent heart attack.  CAD also is the brittling of the arteries causing narrowing of the arteries called arteriosclerosis.  Here it is the ending result is the blood supply is affected in not getting enough oxygen throughout our body to our tissues.

Coronary artery disease can cause a heart attack. If you have a heart attack, you are more likely to survive if you know the

signs and symptoms, call 9-1-1 immediately, and get to a hospital quickly. People who have had a heart attack can also reduce the risk of future heart attacks or strokes by making lifestyle changes and taking medication.   Don’t put off the chest pain or discomfort in the chest or pain down the L arm for if your right you want to prevent the heart attack before it occurs and if you already had an attack the sooner treated the better.  Reperfusion of blood to the heart is the KEY in treatment.  Chest pain to the heart is lack of oxygen getting to the heart tissue=ischemia.  We alone can’t treat it but we can prevent it before CAD even sets in through good health practices daily, healthy dieting daily and balancing rest with exercise daily.                                              

Look at our diet alone in America:

Take the elements that are in our food=Sugars or Carbohydrates or Fats.  Simple CHO likes bread, rice, pasta along with fats and complex sugars all convert to simple sugars in the stomach and when it goes through digestion and the simple sugar reaches the blood stream filling it up with sugar which first does get utilized to our tissues and cells but if still extra sugar in the blood stream that sugar has to go somewhere which is by filling up the liver with it.  In the liver the glucose gets converted from active sugar=glucose to glycogen=inactive sugar that stores in this organ.  This is so if and when the body needs extra sugar for energy in our body and we don’t eat the inactive glucose glycogen will get released back into the blood stream and change to glucose and be used.  Since we eat so much in America it usually isn’t the case.  Obesity is so large in our country and this is why.   When it reaches full and can’t store anymore still this glucose extra glucose in the blood stream has to go somewhere.  So now the glucose gets stored in our fatty tissue=weight gain.  This is what you see with eating through on a regular basis day in & day out too much food compared to the activity or exercise you get for the day.  If no daily exercise then your  fat storage build up is high=weight gain.

How do we go about preventing CAD and getting healther.  Well see if this makes sense to you, it did to me.  First, genetic abnormalities contribute to the risk for certain types of heart disease, which in turn may lead to heart failure.  However, in most instances, a specific genetic link to heart failure has not been identified.  SO THE KEY TO PREVENTION OF CAD IS TO LIVE AS HEALTHY AS POSSIBLE IN YOUR ROUTINE HABITS,  YOUR DIETING OF THE 4 FOOD GROUPS, MAINTAINING YOUR WEIGHT IN A THEREPEUTIC RANGE (look as calculating BMI online for free to find out what your weight range for your height is), and BALANCING REST WITH EXERCISE TO HELP DECREASE THE CHANCE OF GETTING HEART FAILURE.  Go to healthyusa.tsfl.com to learn what Dr. Anderson through his book of “Dr. A.’s Healthy Habits” and me as your health coach could provide you within a reachable cost.  To just view what can be offered to you for no price with no hacking go to healthyusa.tsfl.com and take a peek.  You may just like what you see;)

In our body we have cholesterol which is a type of fat.  In certain foods is cholesterol depending on the food you buy. Your total cholesterol includes LDL (low-density lipoprotein) and HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol.  Let’s differentiate the two, LDL is bad cholesterol because it can build up in the arterial walls and form plaque in time.  That build up in the arteries will reduce blood flow and increase your risk to heart disease, especially eating frequently the wrong foods with high and bad cholesterol over years (Example. coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and eating like this for years can lead to a heart attack or from s/s arising scarring the person to go to the doctor and find out they have blockages & need surgery.  The s/s arising scarring the person can range from chest pain, and can be radiating down the arms,  sweating profusely, weakness/fatigue increases in your life, dizziness, you feel like you’re going to fall or actually due to the fatigue/weakness=low B/P due to the blockage or the heart just working too hard in doing its function since the cardiac output is decreased from the blockage) Take one of my dear friends who I have known almost 35 years who was a workaholic 10to14hr/7 days a week for at least 25 years and this week he had to undergo surgery for a coronary artery blockage bypass for  5 vessels blocked 80% to 100%.  He had a successful bypass done but now has a long rehab hall to get better due to high cholesterol eating, smoking (that both play an impact in plaque & tar build up in the vessels) but he also was obese about 50lbs.  This could have been prevented if he changed his diet, watched his weight, and quit smoking years ago but that takes discipline, making sacrifices=all within your hands to allow for healthy habits now (prevention) or later when problems occur (treatment), if caught in time. There is a way out of this happening to you.                                                                                                                                           HDL (high density lipoprotein) cholesterol is also known as good cholesterol because it is thought to help remove bad cholesterol from the body; if you decide the right foods in the right portions that will have more HDL than LDL in them.  Differentiating the 2, now another component to keep in mind is risk factors that can put you at risk for heart disease and your doctor will determine what additional risk factors you have putting you at risk for heart disease.  These risk factors can be modifiable (controllable by individuals) or non-modifiable (non-controllable by individuals).

Modifiable Risk Factors=High B/P, Diabetes, Low HDL=good cholesterol, High LDL=bad cholesterol, smoking, eating foods high in SATURATED FAT & CHOLESTEROL, lack of any activity in your life (your regular routine doesn’t count), & harmful use of alcohol.

Non-modifiable Risk Factors=4 types only which are:  1-Heredity (The higher the risk is when the heredity is closer to you in your family tree=Nuclear family–mom, dad, and siblings). 2-Age (Men aged 45y/o or older & Women aged 55 y/o or older) 3-Gender (It may affect your risk, for years heart disease was considered a man’s disease but we now know that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women as well as men.  Although men tend to develop coronary artery disease earlier in life, after age 65 the risk of heart disease for both genders is equal.

) 4-Race (Heart disease is higher among African Americans, Mexican Americans, American Indians, native Hawaiians, and some Asian Americans compared to Caucasians).

The answer to prevention or treatment of cardiac disease is changing or modifing your diet, if it’s unhealthy 100% or just partially.  The answer includes exercise (from just walking or if you like working out, even better) and if needed medication but your doctor will decide.  All these changes can modify your blood lipid profile=cholesterol control, which helps increasing your heart to a better tolerance with activity, stress and simply functioning.  Recommended is going to a cardiologist for people diagnosed with heart conditions or your general practitioner with any illness/disease before making changes to help guide you towards the right choices.  Your doctor can help you in determining which prevention or treatment plan is best for you.

Foods high in cholesterol=Fast foods, whole fat dairy products-milk/cheese/butter/mayonnaise/ bacon/processed deli meats/salad dressings and shortenings.

The key is to be living a healthy life.  This consists of diet, exercise or activity and healthy habits learned and practiced routinely in your life that will help prevent or assist in treating cardiac disease.  The better we treat ourselves regarding health the higher the odds we will live a longer and healthier life.  There is not just one food to eat or one type of exercise to do or one healthy habit to keep you healthy, there’s choices.  Come onto my website which is no fee, no charge, no hacking, just letting you check us out to look further in understanding how to take a shape for your life with Dr. Anderson and even myself as your health coach in helping you learn what healthier habits or changes you want for a healthier way of living.  It allows you to make all the decisions in what you want to do regarding what to eat (diet), exercise/activity, and what healthy habits you want to add in your life.  We just provide the information and healthy foods in your diet, if you decide you want it.  You make all the choices.  Wouldn’t you want less disease/illness for yourself and for others throughout the nation including the future generations.  Thank you for lending me your ear in listening how we can help you get healthier and make a healthier USA.  Click onto heathyusa.tsfl.com and I hope to hear from you soon.

The heart is like the engine to a car but for us it’s the “pump” for the human body; without the engine the car won’t run and without the pump we won’t live.  The normal size of the heart is about the size of your fist, maybe a little bigger.  It pumps blood continuously through your entire circulatory system.  The heart consists of four chambers, 2 on the right and 2 on the left.  The right side only pumps high carbon dioxide levels of blood, after all the oxygen was used by the tissues and returns to the heart in the right upper chamber and leaves to the lung from the right lower chamber.  From the lungs it than goes to the left side of the heart now, which is a very short distance as opposed to where the left side pumps the blood.  The L side of the heart pumps blood to the feet, brain and all tissues in between with high oxygen levels of blood.   This is why the L side of the heart does more work than the R side since the blood leaving the L side has a longer distance in distributing oxygen.  The heart pumps the blood with high oxygen blood levels to reach all your tissues and cells, going to the feet, brain, and to all other tissues in between returning home again to the right side of the heart (upper chamber) to get sent to the lungs again for more oxygen.  This is why the muscle on the L side of the heart is larger than the right, it works harder.  Every time your heart beats (the sound we call lub dub) the organ is sending out a cardiac output of blood either to the lungs for more oxygen or to the body tissues through the aorta to give oxygenated blood to your tissues and cells.  This is the mechanics of how the heart works in our body.                                                                                                                            Let’s see what can occur if the heart doesn’t function properly.  If your heart is not pumping out a sufficient amount in your cardiac output to either the lungs (from rt. Side) or to the tissues (from the lt. side) than it tries to work harder where it does ok at first but over time weakens.  As this weak heart struggles to pump blood the muscle fibers of the heart stretch.  Over time, this stretching leaves the heart with larger, weaker chambers.  The heart enlarges (cardiomegaly).   If this continues to go on this could go into R or L sided heart failure.  When this happens, blood that should be pumped out of the heart backs up in the lungs (L sided failure) or in the tissues (R sided failure).  The side the failure is on doesn’t allow proper filling of the chambers on that side and back up happens; so if on the L the fluids back up in the lungs or the R the fluids first back up in the veins which can expand to hold extra blood but at some point dump the extra fluids in your tissues (This is edema in feet first due to gravity).   This is all due to overloading of the blood not filling up in the chambers of the heart to make a good cardiac output of blood and in time the fluid backs up (bad pumping=backup of blood=fluid overload in the lungs (pulmonary congestion) to fluid staying in the skin (first the lower extremities due to gravity=feet which we call edema working its way up the legs.).  This condition in time with no treatment will go into congestive heart failure (CHF) to the other side of the heart if not controlled.  CHF can range from mild to severe.   There is 670,000 cases are diagnosed with this every year and is the leading cause of hospitalization in people over 65 y/o.  Causes of CHF are: heart attack, CAD (coronary artery disease), cardiomyopathy, conditions that overwork the heart like high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity (These diseases can be completely preventable or at least well controlled).                                                                                                                                  There is many of us in this world with knowing how our activity/exercise, eating, and habits could be better for health but do little action if any on our own to change it, which is a large part for certain diseases being so high in America (diabetes, stroke, cardiac diseases=high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis to CHF and more).  If people were more healthier and more active regarding these diseases alone it would decrease in population creating a positive impact on how our health system with insurance presently (a disaster) with our economy for many could get better.  A healthy heart can pump to all parts of the body in a few seconds which is good cardiac output from the organ but when it gets hard for the heart to keep up with its regular routine it first compensates to eventually it decompensates causing ischemia (lack of oxygen to the heart tissue).  It’s like any tissue in the body, lack of oxygen=lack of nutrients to the body tissue=STARVATION and with lack of oxygen will come PAIN eventually to death if not treated.  Take the heart, if it isn’t getting enough oxygen it can go into angina.  That is reversible since it is heart pain due to not enough oxygen to the heart tissue=no damage but if left untreated what will occur is a heart attack=myocardial infarction (MI) and is permanent damage because scarring to the heart tissue takes place.                                                                              Let’s understand what the heart can develop over time with an unhealthy heart due to bad health habits.  If you are eating too much for too long foods high in sodium your vessels will narrow in size.  By allowing this you increase the pressure in the vessels that increases your blood pressure called hypertension.  If you are also inactive you are at risk of obesity which puts stress on the heart and in time causing high B/P.  Constantly be in a high B/P and this could cause the vessel to rupture (at the heart=possible heart attack, at the brain=possible stroke, also called CVA with both on high occurrences in our population of the US.).   With bad habits (especially poor diet, inactive, and smoking) you can cause over time atherosclerosis=a blockage in the artery with the resolution surgery (from a cardiac catheterization up your groin or having difficulty in the arm to the heart where an angiogram to an angioplasty with possibly a stent is performed or if the blockage to blockages is so bad a CABG=coronary artery bypass=a 6hr plus operation where diversion of a vein from your leg (donor graft site) around the blockage is done.  Smoking can lead to this but it also can cause your vessels to become brittle=arteriosclerosis.  Healthy Habits would impact a positive result for all people who have had this diagnosis before but most important be a great PREVENTATIVE measure for people not diagnosed with cardiac disease.    There are 4 things you have no control over heredity, age, sex, and race but healthy habits are sure to benefit you by keeping the odds down of you inheriting, help your age factor, and race a lot can be associated with eating cultural habits.                                                                                                                                                          If you make the decision to live a life that’s healthy for your heart through proper eating, doing healthy habits and doing some exercise or activity with balancing rest in your busy schedule and would like direction or want to expand your diet/exercise/healthy habits then you came to the right blog.  Go to my website for no fee, no charge, no hacking, just letting you check us out to look further in understanding how to take a healthier shape for your life with Dr. Anderson and even myself as your health coach in helping you learn what healthier habits or changes you feel you need and want for a healthier way of living. It allows you to make all the decisions in what you want to do regarding your health.  Includes what to eat (diet), what exercise/activity, and what healthy habits you want to add in your life.  We just provide the information and healthy foods in your diet through information to broaden your knowledge even a catalog on diet foods, if you so choose to do so.  You make all the choices.  Wouldn’t you want less heart disease or obesity or diabetes for yourself and for others throughout the nation including the future generations?  Than join me and others.  Thank you for taking the time to read my article in how we can help you with others gets healthier you including a healthier USA.  Click onto heathyusa.tsfl.com and I hope to hear from you soon.  If you like what you see spread the good cheer.   Let’s build a stronger foundation regarding HEALTH in America.